With the advancement of audio technology the ability to slow down the tempo
of a song or change the key (pitch) of an existing song, has never been easier.

Being able to slow the tempo of a song can be extraordinarily valuable at times. Whether you are trying
to decode and play a song like Eruption by Eddie Van Halen which is played on guitar at a lighting clip,
deciphering something played by a jazz trio, transcribing a complete song, or simply have the need to
change the key or tempo of a song -- any and all of these things can be accomplished --plus a lot more,
by today’s top audio slow down software programs.

The biggest problem you may have is in choosing WHICH software program to buy. There are literally
dozens of software programs available today that do time stretching (that’s what changing pitch and
tempo is called in techie language), and unless you are an audiophile, you might have great difficulty
in sorting through all of these choices. Hopefully that’s where we can assist you.

In our opinion the 12 points below are the most important characteristics to look for when selecting a
slow down music software:

Must maintain excellent audio quality from key and tempo
change

Must be able to export or save tempo and/or key changes
permanently.

Must have an easy-to-use wav file graphic interface

Must have the ability to set or create multiple loops for repeated
playing within a single file and
each of these loops must be customizable

Must be easy to use.

Must be able to open and save in all of the most common audio file
formats.

The overall appearance should be high quality with a professional
look and feel

Should not only cover the basics, but give you room to grow as you
advance

Must have a FREE trial or demo

Must have excellent customer support, with prompt
< 24 hour response times. Real
person support, by phone, is not absolutely required but desirable.

Software must be a good value. Value does not necessarily mean a low
price, rather it is pricing
viewed with the overall features, benefits, quality, and content being factored into the mix.

As we mentioned previously, there are dozens of software programs that can do some of these things but
most don’t do them all or do them well - or they don’t have a significant customer service component. We
do not attempt to review all of these programs -- and would steer you away from buying them. What we
have done is, selected the top handful of these programs and, reviewed them in details. The results of
our investigation and reviews are found below.

Disclosure: We are a professional review site. We do not receive payments for the review
of these products though, in some cases, we do receive commission payments when they are purchased.

Song Surgeon Professional

Song Surgeon Standard

Riffstation

Amazing Slow Downer

Riffmaster Pro

ProgramNoLongerSold

Softwares

Rating Factors

Key Detection

Tempo Detection

Chord Detection

Basic Editing/Recording

Formant Preservation

Automatic click track creation

Sophisticated
Scoring Function

Comments

Song Surgeon Pro is
our #1 rated product..

The Standard version
of SS in an excellent..

Riffstation (ver 1.6.3.0) is the new kid on the block...

Amazing Slow Downer (ver 3.5.7) was one of the..

Riffmaster Pro (ver 4) is a fairly popular program...

Audio Quality

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Good

Loop Creation

Multiple

Multiple

Multiple

Single

Multiple

Wav form display

Audio file formats
open

wav, aif, mp4, m4a, mp3, wma, aac, mp1, flac, ogg, cda, mid

wav, aif, mp4, m4a, mp3, wma, aac, mp1, flac, ogg, cda

wav, ogg, mp3, flac, wma, m4a, mp4, aac, aiff, aif

wav, mp3, wma, ogg, flac, mpc, m4a, aif

wav, aiff, mp3, ogg, flac, m4a, cda, wma, mp4.

Audio File Formats save

wav, mp4, m4a, mp3, wma, aac, aif

wav, mp4, m4a, mp3, wma, aac, aif

wav

wav

mp3, wav

Ease of Use

Easy for basic functions learning curve for advanced

Reasonable easy

Easy for functions learning curve for advanced

Easy

Easy

Professional Apperance

Money Back Guarantee

Unconditional,
100%, 60 days

Unconditional,
100%, 60 days

Not stated on
the site

Not stated
the site

100% within
60 days

Demo or Trial

Fully functional,
4 hours of operation,
no calendar time
limit

Fully functional,
4 hours of operation,
no calendar time
limit

30 days. File
saving is disabled

1st and 2nd track
of a cd / First quarter
of the audio file

10 days

Value

Excellent

Excellent

Very good

Very good

Good

Customer Service

Excellent, includes a Quick Start Guide, Training..

Excellent, includes a Quick Start Guide..

Good - Site has FAQ's and training videos...

Below Average - Contains a small user...

Average - Site has FAQ's and training videos. Software..

Other Features

Open Video Files

Yes, will open
video files and strip
audio

Yes, will open video
files and strip audio

Yes, but only mp4 video files

Speed Trainer

Yes - great feature which allows you to pick

Yes - great feature which allows you to pick

Foot-pedal

Alternative Tunings

Wav Editing

Yes, this wav
editing is unique...

Chord Finder

Project Files

Converts Bit Depth

Converts Frequency

Current Version

5

5

1.6.3.0

3.5.7

4

Recording

Cost

$97

$79

$34.99

$49.95

$49

SONG SURGEON PRO
Based in the U.S

Song Surgeon Pro is our #1 rated product of the 5. SS Pro has a several unique
features that Song Surgeon Standard does not have and several more again that 3rd ranked
Riffstation does not. Song Surgeon Pro has a sophisticated scoring function, it has basic
editing and basic recording features. It can automatically created 4-beat click tracks synced to
the tempo of a song, and it also has the ability to detect or determine the key of a song.
Lastly and very importantly, SS provides the most comprehensive support of any
of the products with a 24/7 Help Desk, Training Videos and a written User Guide

The Standard version of Song Surgeon is an excellent basic product, with
excellent sound quality. In a head to head comparison the Standard model of Song Surgeon is
simply a simply a better overall product. It can slow down tempo much further than
Riffstation, its looping function is clearly superior and it has Speed Trainer, it
detects key, which Riffstation does not, it can open and strip the audio from video files, it
can export in a much larger variety of file formats and it can be used with a footpedal. None of
these last features are found in Riffstation.

Riffstation is the new kid on the block when it comes to slow down type products. Riffstation has
a very attractive and professionally designed interfaced geared toward guitarists. Riffstation
maintains excellent quality on slow down, and like Song Surgeon has the ability to detect tempo
and the chords found in a song. While it lacks several valuable features found in Song Surgeon
it does have a few features not found in the Song Surgeon products, such as the ability to
display the chord shapes for guitar, ukelelee, and piano.

Amazing Slow Downer was one of the first slow downers on the market but it hasn’t
kept up with the times. While it has excellent sound quality, the interface is
antiquated and could be much more user friendly. It does not display a wav form graph which can
be very helpful for setting and refining loops. Lastly, it has no Help Desk and no substantial
FAQ’s or knowledge base.

Riffmaster Pro is a fairly popular program. It is easy to use and professional looking interface.
However it has the poorest quality sound reproduction of any of the products.
This is due to the fact that it uses a very old time-stretching algorithm that was designed to
work with voice, not polyphonic music. While its sound quality can be a problem it has some nice
features like the ability to open video files (strip the audio), looping creation and a
playlist. These additional features offset the disadvantages of the lower quality audio and
allow us to give it a ranking that is almost equal to ASD.